Soldier
by xnaley23
Summary: This is a one-shot story, based off of a behind the scenes moment which happened between James and Joy. The story was that Joy was feeling super unwell, and James carried her to their trailer. (It was on a French fan forum). So I thought of writing a one-time fic based on that. It's just for fun, I respect everyone's views and opinions, but this story is purely for entertainment.
**A/N:** This is a one-shot story, based off of a behind the scenes moment which happened between James and Joy. The story was that Joy was feeling super unwell, and James carried her to their trailer. (It was on a French fan forum). So I thought of writing a one-time fic based on that. It's just for fun, I respect everyone's views and opinions, but this story is purely for entertainment purposes…so no negativity, please! Loosen up a little and enjoy J Don't take everything so seriously, so please no hate. Thank you. **[ haters will be blocked ]**

 ** _"_** ** _I'll get it if you need it, I'll search if you don't see it, You're thirsty, I'll be rain, you get hurt, I'll take your pain. I know you don't believe it, but I said it and I still mean it, when you heard what I told you when you get worried I'll be your soldier."_**

 **-James POV-**

I hadn't seen her in practically forever. It was bittersweet in a way, I mean she always wanted this. She had big dreams about being on the road and touring, a different city every night, meeting new people. Whenever she would talk about it, her eyes would light up. I always found it so endearing, when she spoke about anything she was passionate about. Mark had heard her singing in the lot of where the trailers were and he was so mesmerised, I mean who wouldn't be? Then he had this idea to incorporate her music into the show, which was real fun. It was a beautiful way for her to showcase her talent to everyone. Then come season 2 and he asked her to go on tour. I still remember the day she told me, I was kind of blind sighted by it, not in a bad way, I just, I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. Like one day she was just humming random songs, and then the next thing you know she was a rock star. I was proud of her, of course, I was.

But apart of me felt like, it was happening so fast. We were just getting to know each other, slowly becoming good friends. And then suddenly she was leaving for a couple of months. It was selfish to feel like that, she couldn't just show me her talent every day in our trailer, she had to show it to the rest of the world. I don't know, maybe I just felt this special type of bond between us when she sang to me. When it was just us, now it was her and everyone else. She deserved every ounce of success, though, I mean her voice was so angelic. Almost soothing in a way, kind of like my own therapeutic, aesthetic type thing. I always felt so calm whenever she would be singing some show tune in our trailer.

There's a saying which goes " _You never know what you have until you lose it_ ", but truth be told I always knew what I had, I just never knew that I would lose it. Lose her. Not to say that she belonged to me, but I really valued our friendship. She was really easy to talk to, I would just tell her random stuff on my mind and she would either laugh or automatically give me some solution.

It hadn't been like that in a long time, most of season 2 was basically finished and we hadn't seen each other, in a decade, well that's what it felt like to me anyway. But finally her tour was done and she was coming back to set, I was dying to ask her about her experience. What it was like to be living her dreams, if she missed me, if she missed the set and Wilmington? I had a bunch of different questions ready to ask. Also, I was excited to show her what I had done with our trailer, she would always bug me to make more space for her things because most of my junk pretty much covered the whole trailer. So I made some shelves and put them up, made her a ton of room and cleaned the crap outta the place. She would be pleased. I even made a space for her guitars and piano, so she could practise on there. It wasn't a huge trailer, but I made the most out of what little space we did have. I had all these dreams and ideas on what we would do when she got back to set. How I would prepare a pretty cool meal for us both, I know she's a sucker for Chinese food. And then would just talk for hours about what she did, who she met, would she go back. But it was nothing like that…

See, I had all these ideas and plans but nothing ever goes quite the way you plan. When she did finally come back, we had a couple of scenes to shoot in the morning. It was gonna be a long day of shooting. Our schedule was from 6am until 10pm. I was up and ready to go, I sat in the trailer waiting to be called for hair and make-up. I had headphones in my ears and was subconsciously singing along to lose yourself by Eminem. Funny, because the lyrics just seemed to fit in so perfectly with my life right now.

" _Look If you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted_

 _in one moment would you capture it or just let it slip?_ " I sang. I grabbed a packet of Oreo's and scuffed them down as I laid on the couch. I had literally heard this song a billion times since it came out, I knew each lyric and how it was said. I could basically take on Eminem at this point in a rap battle…just kidding. This time was weird, though, I mean I had heard the song a billion times before but for some reason, this time around it felt different. Almost like the lyrics meant something to me. Maybe I was just over thinking and over excited because I was finally gonna see one my best friends after forever.

" _He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out. He's chokin', how, everybody's jokin' now, the clocks run out, times up, over, blow! Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity_ ", I rapped. As I was so lost in the music I didn't even notice the gentle tap on my shoulder. I took out my earphones and looked over my shoulder to see her standing there. She was a petite yet tenacious woman, with long golden blonde hair that smelt like jasmine's and coconuts, mixed with a warm summer breeze.

" _Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked. He's so mad, but he won't give up that easy? No, he won't have it, he knows his whole back city's ropes It don't matter, he's dope, he knows that but he's broke_ " she rapped as she giggled. I laughed and shook my head in embarrassment.

"You know the lyrics", I smiled

"Yeah, you've played that song enough times," she said.

"Aaaah, you don't know how great it is to see you again", I said as I leapt from my chair and embraced her in my arms.

It seemed as though we melted into each other. I closed my eyes and the noise around me came to a halt, I lost track of where my body stopped and where hers began. I felt safe like I was at home at last. For that moment, I had no worries no fears, just a calm feeling. Although she seemed different since the last time I saw her. Her usual sun-kissed complexion was flushed to a pale grey. Her eyes were sunken deep into her sockets as dark eye bags hung like sleeping sloths. I slowly pulled out from the hug and looked deep into her eyes.

"You okay? Your voice sounds so hoarse. Like you've lost it" I asked

"Yea, I've just been feeling really rough" she replied

"I hate to say it, but we have a long day of shooting ahead of us"

"I know. I'll be okay. I have plenty of fluids and I'm super high on cough syrup right now" she chuckled

"You sure?" I asked

"Yeah", she said smiling as she walked off.

The shooting schedule was gruelling, especially since it got changed around and we had to reshoot a couple of scenes from before. I was getting really worried about her, she kept saying she was fine but her mouth was telling a different story to her eyes. She could barely speak by the end of the day. Between each take, she would just collapse on the director's chair as though her life was slowly being sucked out of her. She had this awful cough, to the point where she was almost choking. I grabbed her a bottle of water immediately, but there was really no use. Her voice was just sounds and gestures now. As we waited for them to set up the next scene she came and sat next to me, on the stairs. Without saying a word her head fell onto my shoulder as she closed her eyes. I felt hopeless looking at her in this state, I really felt like I should tell the director to let her finish early because she not in a great condition. But I knew she would resent me for that, she would say in her cute little squeaky voice, "James, how many times do I have to tell you. I can handle it. I may be a lot smaller than you, but believe me. A little flu isn't gonna keep me down". I sighed as I gently rested my head on top of hers as I put my hand on her thigh.

I really admired her strength, and courage to work despite feeling debilitated. See that's the thing with her, even when she's at her worst, she won't say it. She would fight on, like an injured sailor, determined to make it to shore. It was one of the many things I admired about her, she would never complain about being sick, or anything else. She would just get on with it, a quality which many of us would really benefit from.

"We're ready for you guys", said the director.

I nodded as I looked over at Joy. She was totally knocked out, I really didn't want to wake her. With great difficulty I slowly put my hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently.

"Joy, Joy. Wake up. They're ready for us" I said quietly

She slowly opened her eyes as she lifted her head from my shoulder. She got up and walked to the set without saying anything. And with that, we shot the scene. It was our second to the last scene of the day. Thank God. Sadly, though, this scene took forever to shoot, almost 4 hours just because of the logistics of it all. When the scene was finally done, I expected her to walk towards the trailers and lay down, but instead, she went back to the stairs and rested her head against the banister. I was confused, as I walked over to her.

"Joy? You okay? We're done you know. We can go back to the trailer", I said.

She didn't reply, she was motionless. A little while after I said that she slowly opened her eyes.

"Okay", she whispered. She didn't move at all. As the set cleared up, it was just the two of us left. She had no energy to do move, or speak, or do anything. I felt awful. I gently caressed her face as she opened her eyes, our nose's almost touching.

"You alright there trooper", I asked growing worried

"No" she whispered as tears rolled down her cheeks like a flowing river

This was the first time she let her defences down. Her eyes were in pain as she her face slumped down. She didn't want to complain, she didn't want to ask me for any help. That was who she was, but I knew I had to do something. I couldn't just leave her here. I sighed as I grabbed a tissue from my pocket and wiped her tears.

"Hey, hey it's okay. You don't need to cry. I got you", I said reassuringly.

"James", she said almost smiling

"I'm here"

I then put my arm around her back as I carried her bridal style. She managed to wrap one of her arms around my neck as she rested her head on my chest. I lifted her up and walked her to our trailer. She didn't say a word, she felt so hopeless, I could see it in her eyes. When we finally got to the trailer, I laid her on the bed and put a warm blanket over her. I felt her forehead and she was burning up, I quickly ran to the sink and got a hand towel and wet it. I then placed the wet towel on her burning forehead. I walked over towards the medicine cabinet and grabbed a few things which I thought she would need.

"Hey, here's some flu medicine. You gotta take this" I said as I kneeled down next to her

She gently lifted her head from the pillow and took it from my hand as she chugged some water down with the medication.

"Do you have a headache?" I asked

"Yea", she said slowly

I slowly moved the wet towel from her head and gently began to massage her forehead, until she fell asleep. The next morning, I found myself asleep on the couch, next to her bed. I looked over and she wasn't there. I grew confused, as I jolted up from the couch.

"Joy?" I asked growing worried.

"I'm here", she said

I walked over to her and she was making breakfast in the tiny kitchen area we had. She looked a lot better.

"Hey, thanks for taking such good care of me last night. It really meant a lot" she said as she tightly hugged me.

"Oh, no problem. I know you would of, done the same, minus the carry me part, but you would have done something, either way, to get me to a bed" I laughed

"Na, I wouldn't have done the same," she said sarcastically, hitting me playfully on the arm

"I resent that"

"I'm just kidding, of course, I would have. Seriously, though, thank you so so much!" she said as she leaned up planting a kiss on my cheek.

"It really meant a lot" she smiled.

 **-The end-**


End file.
